Late Summer is for Centering: Spleen, Stomach & the Earth Element
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Disclaimer: This series explores Traditional Chinese Medicine and seasonal wellness as a personal practice and source of reflection. It is not intended as medical advice.
Hey y'all! I hope this message finds you well.
We're reaching the point of summer when the season begins to soften.
The days are still long. And the smoldering heat hasn’t yet completely loosened its grip. But something feels different. The urgency of early summer starts settling and nature seems full: lushed and ripened with everything it has spent the season becoming. In Traditional Chinese Medicine and Five Element philosophy, this in-between period is known as Late Summer, the season of the Earth element. And its lesson is simple: come back to center.
From Growth to Transformation
Spring was about birth. Summer invited growth, expansion, joy, and connection. & Late summer brings us into transformation.
In the Five Element correspondences outlined in Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford, the Earth element is associated with the spleen-pancreas and stomach, the color yellow, the sweet taste, dampness, the muscles and flesh, and the emotion of worry and anxiety. In my humble opinion, this is a very fitting placement for the Earth element's arrival. After months of movement and expansion, Late Summer asks us to consider how well we're actually nourishing what we’ve created.
The Spleen, Stomach & the Practice of Nourishment
Within TCM philosophy, the spleen and stomach are closely associated with digestion and the body’s ability to transform nourishment into usable energy. But I like thinking about digestion beyond food. We digest experiences, too. Ideas. Changes. Relationships. Disappointments. Successes. New versions of ourselves. And sometimes we're so busy collecting experiences that we don't give ourselves enough space to process them properly.
Late summer lovingly affords us the opportunity to do exactly that.
To sit with what the year has given us so far and ask: What am I still carrying that needs to be processed? What has actually nourished me? What am I ready to turn into something useful?
Transformation doesn’t always require adding something new. Sometimes it happens when we finally absorb or discard what's already present.
When the Mind Won’t Stop Chewing
The emotional correspondence of the Earth element is worry and anxiety. Worry can feel a lot like mental indigestion—the same thought being turned over and over without ever reaching a conclusion. Late summer reminds us that grounding isn’t about having every answer, but returning to what's tangible.
Eating a nourishing meal. Cleaning your space. Walking outside. Calling someone you love. Resting without turning rest into another task to accomplish. Finishing one thing before beginning three more (the last one is so me, lol). Earth brings us back into the body and the ordinary rituals that hold us together.
Eating With the Season
Late summer is traditionally associated with the sweet taste, but that doesn’t mean reaching for refined, heavily processed sugar. Think instead of the gentle sweetness found naturally in whole foods: squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, corn, fruit, whole grains, and other foods that feel substantial and grounding. Healing with Whole Foods also associates the Earth element with grains such as millet and barley. This is the time of year when I naturally begin craving foods that feel a little more comforting without being as heavy as the meals I’ll want once autumn arrives.
Late summer lives in that middle space. Still warm enough for fresh fruit and crisp vegetables. Yet close enough to fall to begin welcoming roasted vegetables, grains, soups, and warmer preparations back to the table. And of course, seasonal eating doesn’t have to become another rigid wellness rule. It's simply an opportunity to notice what feels most nourishing to your body. (I hate to have to include this disclaimer, but please ensure you are following all the latest USA food recalls and select your produce accordingly).
The Lesson of Earth
Perhaps my favorite correspondence for Late Summer is its developmental stage: transformation. Transformation is often romanticized as becoming someone entirely new, but Earth offers another possibility. Transformation can mean becoming more rooted in yourself. Taking everything you’ve experienced—the beautiful, the difficult, the things you’re still trying to understand—and allowing them to become part of your foundation.
There's powerful wisdom in growth.
But there's also wisdom in knowing when to stop reaching outward and tend within. Late summer reminds us that nourishment is part of becoming, too. We don’t have to constantly produce or endlessly expand. The work is simply to digest, integrate, and center. And I believe that’s what this little season between seasons is here to teach us: Before the harvest, nourish the roots.
The Keesh Edit: Late summer feels like a reminder that becoming isn’t only about reaching for the next version of yourself. Sometimes it’s about giving yourself enough space to absorb the version you’ve already become.
This season, I’m asking myself: What deserves to be nourished before I ask myself to grow again?
Until next time.
From My Bookshelf
This installment of the Organ Harmony series was inspired in part by the Five Element correspondences explored in Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition by Paul Pitchford. I return to this book as a reference for thinking about food, seasons, and the body through the lens of traditional Eastern wellness philosophies.
Disclaimer: This series explores Traditional Chinese Medicine and seasonal wellness as a personal practice and source of reflection. It is not intended as medical advice.
BEFORE YOU GO: Carry authenticity with you. Explore my Healing is Not Linear Notebook Collection—designed for readers, creatives, and anyone becoming themselves.